The Memorial Day Week 2007 Trip Report

It has been a while since our last trip to WDW. Our very last trip was in Sept. 2006, which I had reported in the Pin Event trip report. And this same time last year, we were about to start on what I called our Mini Grand Tour, where we started our vacation at Disneyland, and then flew to WDW to finish the rest.

Tomorrow, we will start on our trip to WDW. We will be heading to Fredricksburg, VA first, though, to spend the weekend. We will be flying in to Orlando on Monday, Memorial Day (I fully expect the airports to be totally nuts).

We have several things planned, and many, many pins to buy. The whole trip will culminate in the "Red Shirt" day on Saturday, followed by a private party at Disney-MGM Studios that evening, headlined by Kathy Griffin!

I'll post my report as we go along after we get to WDW, including pictures. My next transmission will be from the Happiest Place on Earth. See ya then!

Zz.

 

[CAPTAIN HOOK]

Looking forward to Mondays update....................

 

[Nemo14]

Have a great trip - looking forward to pictures!

 

[nibblesandbits]

Have an amazing trip!!! Can't wait to hear about it!

 

[ilovepluto23]

We have several things planned, and many, many pins to buy. The whole trip will culminate in the "Red Shirt" day on Saturday, followed by a private party at Disney-MGM Studios that evening, headlined by Kathy Griffin!

Will this event, by any chance, be on her reality tv show "My Life on the D-List" on Bravo?? Although I'd love to see that, I'd hope she doesn't count WDW events "D-List" events lol! I love that woman! Hilarious!

Enjoy your trip, can't wait to read more!:wave:

 

[ZapperZ]

We finally made it to The Happiest Place on Earth. We flew in about 3:30 pm, and made it to our "home" at Old Key West in just about an hour after that. Not bad for having to wait for the luggage and picking up the rental car.

We then headed straight to Epcot. Of course, the Flower and Garden Festival is in full bloom (pun intended).

We went to the Mexico pavilion to do the Fiesta ride. It was OK, but parts if it felt like It's A Small World. They also depended too much on videos. It certainly is better than the old outdated show they had earlier, but I was hoping they do better.

We had dinner at Alfredo. The whole dining experience started out quite well. We got seated ahead of our reservation time, had a wonderful salad (the capresse salad), the place was very festive (the staff kept singing and clapping, and dancing), and then the main entree arrived and it was a let down. We both ordered pasta dishes, but both appeared as if it had sat for a while before they were delivered to our table. The pasta was lukewarm and clumped together. They tasted OK, but no Italians worth his/her heritage would serve pasta stuck together like that. So that part was rather disappointing.

This is a picture in Alfredo when they got the guests to twirl their napkins.

We then stayed for IllumiNations, my most favorite nighttime show in all of WDW. They have altered the beginning narrations, and Siemens name can be found easily all over it. It is still a kick-______ show.

We're tired after traveling and spending the evening at Epcot. Tomorrow promises to be a full day. We might start at The Magic Kingdom since it has an early extra Magic Hour tomorrow, but we'll see.

Zz.

 

[ZapperZ]

The one thing I forgot to mention is that the Orlando area seems to be in the middle of the invasion of those small, black, reddish bugs. We encountered them a few years ago, and now it appears that they are back. Our windshield was splattered by them as we drove from the airport. See if you can spot them.

At the Epcot parking area, we saw this vehicle that had its front almost covered by it. They must have driven quite a distance to get here.

I hope I don't swallow any as I scream my head off plunging down Splash Mountain.

Zz.

 

[jiminy.cricket]

Eww...I remember the love bugs...so hard not to step on them.

I love your pix of Epcot!

 

[ZapperZ]

We had a leisurely 2nd day. We started out hearing some DVC sales talk about buying more points to add to our existing points. They're letting us buy DVC points at OKW at a $10 discount. It was tempting, but we need to think this over a bit. So we'll decide after we get back.

We then headed out to Disney-MGM Studios. They were rather busy mid-morning. Tower of Terror was running 40 minutes wait, with Fastpasses going for 12:30 pm or later. We didn't feel like doing it since we will get to do this a few times later in the week. So we went to the Animation Studios. We got to draw Mickey, but unlike the ones that I've done earlier, this Mickey was in profile. I'll upload what I drew later.

The Hat had stuff in front of it for the private party event on Saturday night that I had mentioned earlier.

We then headed out to Animal Kingdom. We made a beeline to Finding Nemo The Musical. It was terrific. If you have seen the stage show of The Lion King, you will be amazed at it. If you have never seen the stage show of The Lion King, you will be utterly astounded by it. It is a terrific show. A must see.

We then did Everest (of course). It is still as great of a ride as ever. Too bad they no longer use the mist/steam.

We then stayed for Mickey's Jammin' Jungle Parade. Last time we saw this was in 2003. This time, not only did we take pictures, but we also videotaped it. I'll edit it and upload it after we get back, so look out for it.

Tonight, we'll spend a relaxing day at our resort and Downtown Disney. We will have a long day tomorrow, starting with the Donald Breakfastosaurus at AK early in the morning. So it should be fun.

Zz.

 

[DDuckFan130]

Great pictures! Feels like I was just there :lookaroun

I also loved the Nemo show And I am not a fan of FOTLK :lol:

 

[rbrower]

Thanks for the information and the pictures!

 

[rbrower]

Great pictures! Feels like I was just there :lookaroun

I also loved the Nemo show And I am not a fan of FOTLK :lol:

Me too! I thought that the Nemo show was really great, but the only time that I have seen FOTLK was a couple of years ago. I didn't like it then, I don't think that I would like it now. Of course, when I went to go see it, it was in the middle of the summer and there was no air conditioning then.:lol:

 

[imagineer99]

Great Pictures...

I would love to know how you gut such great fireworks shots. Did you use a tripod?

 

[ZapperZ]

Great Pictures...

I would love to know how you gut such great fireworks shots. Did you use a tripod?[/quo

Yes, I used a tripod and the iso 100 setting on my camera.

Zz.

 

[ZapperZ]

While at AK, I took pictures of the construction in Asia of the Yak and Yeti restaurant. It looks like it's going to be a rather big building.

Zz.

 

[imagineer99]

Keep these coming. I'm throughly enjoying your great pictures!

 

[ZapperZ]

We're back at OKW to rest a bit after a very busy day. We started out at AK for the Breakfastosaurus. It was a lot of fun. Mickey, Donald, Pluto, and Goofy were all there. Our server, Mikesaurus, was particularly fun and "goofy" and kept us all entertained (I gave him an extra tip even though the tip was included with our Dining Plan). We actually arrived an hour early than our reservation at 8:50 am. But since AK has the early Extra Magic Hours today, we thought that even if we could not get an early seating, we would be able to do the park before it opens to everyone. Well, we actually did get seating early. So we ate and then did Everest. We actually did Everest twice. In between we were at Camp Minnie and Mickey and also saw Festival of the Lion King.

Here is a picture of AK very early in the morning that the booth to get into the parking area isn't even open.

This is what it looks like when you're the FIRST one to drive into the AK parking lot. We really were the first guest vehicle get into the park.

Waiting to get in for your Breakfastosaurus.

Here's Donald going around greetings all of his fans, like us.

Mickey was there as well.

We went on Everest and met this rather woolly creature. Anyone knows what this is?

The Festival of the Lion King. Another terrific live show at AK, which now has two! The other being the Finding Nemo show.

Before we left, we went on Everest one more time!

[continue]

 

[ZapperZ]

[.... continue]

We then headed over to The Magic Kingdom. Of course, we can't help but asked to ride in the front cab, and we did! We even got our Monorail Pilot cards.

They're still doing construction on the Contemporary.

The Magic Kingdom. I always take several pictures of the Castle no matter how many time I've been there. It's almost a tradition.

We went on Pirates, which has a 35 minute wait, and then got on Thunder Mountain Railroad using a fastpass (the standby wait was probably 45 mins).

They had a Family Day parade or show of some kind in front of City Hall.

We resting a bit before heading to the airport (no, we're not leaving yet) to pick up our friends who are arriving from Los Angeles. They are WDW virgins and we're going to be showing them around. If they get in early enough (so far their plane is 1 1/2 hour delayed), we might head back to the Magic Kingdom for Wishes, if we have time.

Tomorrow we do MGM in the morning and then Epcot in the afternoon/evening, since we have a reservation at Marakesh.

Zz.

 

[JerMerBear]

I just love your pictures and its a fantastic trip report! What day did you see Jammin Jungle? I'd LOVE to see more pictures and I'll definitely look forward to seeing the video!

 

[Wannabe Walt]

I was there from the 22-30. What was up with the Family Fun Day at MK thing? Were were trying to leave MK while they started it... posed a lil problem. So instead, we shopped in the Emporium for a while (good solve huh?) lol. I was trying to see if any of my group was in any of your pics but we weren't. lol. oh well. I ended up taking like 600+ pics of my own (over 50 alone of the Castle and around 40 of Wishes). I'll try and post a trip report when I'm a little more lively and awake. It's 1:07 AM here but it still feels like Orlando time so it feels 2:07ish to me still... geeeeeez.... Adios